Mr Griffin, a Press Conference and a Mob.

I read today about how Nick Griffin the leader of The British National Party was forced to abandon a news and press conference being held outside Parliament on College Green as protesters disrupted the event and at one point, as Mr Griffin was being led away, he was attacked by one of the protesters throwing an egg at him.

Now I do not think it matters if you like or dislike Mr Griffin as a person, it does not matter if you like or dislike the policies he puts forward and supports and it does not matter if you support or not The British National Party, for Mr Griffin to be forced to abandon a press conference in this way by a group of protesters is fundamentally wrong if not possibly even unlawful.

The British National Party is a recognised political party within the British political system. The BNP puts forward candidates to stand as councillors in local elections as it puts forward candidates to stand as prospective Members of Parliament and it also puts forward candidates to stand as prospective Members of the European Parliament. The BNP does all these things legally and lawfully, there may be some faction of the population who do not like it but it is legal and lawful.

In the recent elections to elect members to 'represent us' within the European Parliament The British National Party won two seats, Nick Griffin himself was elected for the North West region and Andrew Brons for Yorkshire and Humber regions. Both Mr Griffin and Mr Brons were elected under the laid down procedures, they won their seats as a direct result of a democratic, free, legal and lawful election. Enough people within these two regions freely and voluntarily attended their nominated Polling Station, they were allowed to vote by legally being on the electoral roll and they freely choose from all the options open to them on the voting paper to place a cross against the BNP candidate.

Both Griffin and Brons were Democratically and Lawfully elected to serve as Members of the European Parliament.

Now of course there is also a case to say that in this country individuals and groups are 'generally' allowed to make public protest providing of course that any public protest is carried out within the terms of the law, it is lawful and it is peaceful. Peaceful of course does not have to mean silent and any protesters may be within reason as vocal as they wish, providing being vocal does not contravene the Terrorism Act, generally peaceful protest is understood to be non violent.

The group that attended and forcibly disrupted the press conference being given by Nick Griffin today have called themselves Unite Against Fascism and if many of the newspaper reports are anything to go by this group are supported by many MP's from the mainstream parties including the Tory leader David Cameron. Of course it is the right of Unite Against Fascism to attend and 'peaceful' protest against Mr Griffin as an individual, as leader of the BNP, the BNP as a political party or in fact anything else they wish to protest about. What they can not do is to physically assault Mr Griffin or anyone else which is what they did do. A tourist it is reported was innocently caught up in the melee, suffered injury and had to be treated in an ambulance.

Mr Weyman Bennett who is the national secretary of Unite Against Fascism is reported as saying " The majority of the people did not vote for the BNP, they did not vote at all". Well Mr Bennett the very sad news for you is that in fact sufficient people did in fact vote for the BNP in both the North West and Yorkshire and Humber regions to return two BNP candidates as MEPs and if you like it or not that was done democratically and legally. I might hope that the innocent tourist caught up in this is able to obtain the address of Mr Bennett so he or she may consider taking legal action to sue him for any injury received.

If anyone acted unlawfully today it was Unite Against Fascism.

Mr Bennett is in my opinion a fool. He and his unruly mob of protesters had the opportunity today to make their points in front of the nations press, they had the opportunity to ask Mr Griffin some very searching and difficult questions that may have allowed them as a group to score some political points against Mr Griffin and the BNP. They had the element of surprise on their side but what did we the watching public see ? an unruly mob of yobs pushing shouting and throwing eggs.

In the eyes of the media Mr Bennett, and perhaps with some of the public, I would say Mr Griffin and the BNP hold the morale high ground over this and they know you are coming next time so you have even lost the element of surprise.

I would also ask Mr Bennett, do you think that the actions of your group will stop the BNP giving news or press conferences, no, of course not, all that will happen now is that they will give their news and press conferences to the media behind closed doors and the media will publish and report the results so you have gained nothing at all. Even the Prime Minister gives his daily and weekly press conference behind closed doors before an invited group of media, so you may even have given Mr Griffin and his party some credibility, however small.

Yes Mr Bennett in my opinion your are indeed a fool.